Mob rule abhors a vacuum:Rebecca Gustavson, of USAID, said: “The UN is the lead distributor of food aid; we are one of the donors.” But at a press conference UN officials insisted Mr Préval’s administration remained in charge, with 5,000 US troops assigned to help to distribute rations. The result is a power vacuum into which the UN, the US military and aid agencies have been sucked with no consensus on who is in charge.